25 years ago: Lawrence Parks & Rec plans park for Chaparral area

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department was hoping to spend about $2 million before the end of the decade for major parks projects. A new park was planned for a 25-acre site purchased at the end of 1985 for $50,000. The park was to be north of Mary's Lake and was to be east of the Chaparral neighborhood. The only work currently being done on the site was the cleaning up of years of illegal trash dumping and the construction of fences to discourage dirt bikes. Some future plans included building a street to connect 27th and 28th Terrace.

Two sixth-grade students from Broken Arrow Elementary School had recently researched their school’s past for a history project. They reported that the open-space concept that had originally caused such controversy at its inception was still providing plenty of fuel for criticism from some parents. Parents of Centennial School students who were slated to be transferred to Broken Arrow were worried about the open-space layout of the school, which they said could be a noisy distraction for students.